With NTIA in the 90-day curing stage for states that submitted their revised final BEAD proposals by the Sept. 4 deadline, some broadband access advocates are claiming that the agency is requiring states to conduct another "Best and Final Offer" round based on price caps. They said a spreadsheet obtained by BroadbandMarketer's Doug Adams containing excessive cost thresholds suggests that NTIA will require states to reengage with subgrantees with overly high project costs.

Michael Powell is leaving NCTA on a high note, with net neutrality -- an issue he has dealt with and opposed for decades -- seemingly dead. "It was going to be really dispiriting to me if I retired, and we were now in a Title II environment, and I'm super excited that no, I can say that we slayed that dragon," the group's outgoing leader told us.

Despite continuing questions about how quickly major wireless providers really want the next major spectrum auction, the FCC is under the gun to hold an upper C-band auction in just two years. But industry experts told us that, as was said of the baseball field in 1989’s Field of Dreams, if the FCC holds an auction the carriers will come.

Competitive Carriers Association membership is shrinking, but the remainder are hopeful about future spectrum auctions and policy calls that could mean the difference between life and death for many small players, CEO Tim Donovan said in an interview Thursday.

SpaceX’s $17 billion purchase of EchoStar’s AWS-4 and H-block spectrum rights is a disruptive hit to L- and S-band satellite operators and their direct-to-device (D2D) plans, Iridium CEO Matt Desch said Thursday at a U.S. Chamber of Commerce aerospace and space event in Washington. Also at the event, Rep. Brian Babin, R-Texas, chairman of the House Science, Space and Technology Committee, said overregulation is one of the chief issues facing the commercial space industry.

Ten Senate Republicans want to mitigate parts of the GOP’s compromise on a spectrum pipeline framework, adopted in July via the budget reconciliation package, amid an ongoing push to excise language in the FY 2026 National Defense Authorization Act (S-2296) that would give the Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman authority to veto commercial use of the 3.1-3.45, 7 and 8 GHz bands (see 2509100064).

Communications Daily is tracking the lawsuits below involving appeals of FCC actions.

The FCC’s newly launched Consumer Protection and Accessibility Advisory Committee (CPAAC) will focus on two particularly pressing consumer issues: promoting accessibility in modern communications and “the scourge of illegal robocalls,” Chairman Brendan Carr said Wednesday. Speaking at the inaugural meeting of what he called the "renamed and refocused" advisory group, Carr promised increased FCC enforcement efforts aimed at illegal robocalls, including "actions that effectively prohibit voice service providers from connecting or maintaining their connections" to U.S. telephone networks.

The House Appropriations Committee voted 35-28 early Wednesday morning to advance the Labor, Health and Human Services Subcommittee’s FY 2026 funding bill after turning back Democrats’ bid to attach $535 million in advance CPB funding for FY 2028. The measure lacks language to restore any of the $1.1 billion in federal money for CPB that Congress clawed back in July via the 2025 Rescissions Act (see 2509030065). Meanwhile, House Appropriations appeared on track Wednesday afternoon to advance the Commerce, Justice, Science and Related Agencies Subcommittee’s FY26 bill, which would cut NTIA’s annual funding (see 2507150086). The panel was still considering amendments at our deadline.

NTIA Administrator Arielle Roth announced Wednesday that she's sending a letter to FCC Chairman Brendan Carr asking the agency to launch an auction of the 1675-1680 MHz band. It would be the first 5 MHz of the 500 MHz that NTIA is required to identify for auction under the reconciliation package, signed into law in July (see 2507070045). Carr aide Arpan Sura said the FCC is “laser-focused” on the upper C band for what is likely to be the only major spectrum auction in the next few years. Both spoke at NTIA’s spectrum policy symposium.